Third edition of d·HEALTH Barcelona masters program kicks off, training future health entrepreneurs
<p>This year the fellows will scout for unmet clinical needs at Hospital Clinic, Sant Joan de Déu and Institut Guttmann</p>
The third edition of the Design Health Barcelona (d·HEALTH Barcelona) program, an initiative of Biocat offered as an official masters degree from the University of Barcelona (UB), starts today, training entrepreneurs and innovators who will have an impact on the health ecosystem in the BioRegion of Catalonia.
The d·HEALTH Barcelona masters program is one of only four in Europe inspired by the Stanford University biodesign program. Over the course of the program, fellows experience a full innovation cycle, from identifying unmet clinical needs at hospitals to designing and prototyping a viable solution and searching for funding. At the same time, students acquire knowledge in medicine, business development and skills in areas like design thinking and creative leadership through classes and workshops given by more than 50 international experts from Stanford and MIT, among others.
To start off, students will do an intensive week of team building in Collbató and Barcelona with Kaos Pilot, the benchmark Danish training center known for its disruptive methodology. This phase, sponsored by the Banc Sabadell Foundation, will help bring the three multidisciplinary teams together before starting their clinical immersion in February at one of the three top hospitals in Barcelona: Hospital Clínic, Sant Joan de Déu or Institut Guttmann. In addition to the Banc Sabadell Foundation, this year d·HEALTH Barcelona is receiving support from Sanofi, which is collaborating on the program for the third year running.
From clinical need to business project
Of the six teams of fellows that have already gone through the d·HEALTH Barcelona program, five continue working on their business project. One of them is usMIMA, which won the 2014 Bioemprenedor XXI award and has launched the prototype of a belt-like device that simulates a colon massage to alleviate chronic constipation in patients with spinal injuries and multiple sclerosis. The team detected this business idea while on their clinical immersion at Institut Guttmann. Another team of d·HEALTH Barcelona fellows working on their business project is Kocoon, working on a medical device for patients in the neonatal and pediatric ICU.
The fellows from the second edition, who graduated last June, are now working on projects associated with breastfeeding and fecal and urinary incontinence.
Classes open to the sector
Biocat opens up some of the d·HEALTH Barcelona sessions to the sector through the MOEBIO Short Programs. These training programs last no more than 20 hours and are geared towards students, professionals and entrepreneurs, covering practical knowledge on key topics of healthcare, innovation, management and business spirit. Each one lasts no more than 20 hours, divided into 3 to 8 sessions of varying lengths. Anyone interested can register to attend individual sessions without doing the whole program.
Some of the MOEBIO Short Programs offer discounts for hospital professionals (30%) and students (50%) in their 4th year at university or doing masters degrees in economics, the health and life sciences, engineering or design.
More detailed information and the conditions of each program are available on the MOEBIO Short Programs website.